


Strangely Easy to Mistake for Loathing

by doughts



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-02-06
Packaged: 2018-03-10 18:33:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3299618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doughts/pseuds/doughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma wonders if hate and love are two sides of the same coin, driven deeply by passion. Or maybe it's that love is hard to understand, and two people who are stubborn and out of touch with their feelings can only realize that they care for each other through arguments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strangely Easy to Mistake for Loathing

**Author's Note:**

> An incredibly sappy bit of fluff that popped into my head the other day.

Emma had a love for romantic comedies that she would never admit to anyone. Ever. It was just so soothing to know the ending when the movie started and to be able to believe in the true love she never got. Stardust was one of her particular favorites.

It comes to her mind more frequently as she starts to spend time with Regina and get involved in this ridiculous world of fairy tales, especially the line that said love was strangely easy to mistake for loathing. She wonders if hate and love are two sides of the same coin, driven deeply by passion. Or maybe it's that love is hard to understand, and two people who are stubborn and out of touch with their feelings can only realize that they care for each other through arguments.   
Emma doesn't know. She hasn't known enough love in her life to understand it, hasn't had enough practice to recognize the symptoms of love sickness.   
But she does know that Regina is stronger than people are willing to admit, and strength is one thing that Emma has always admired. Regina has made bad choices, but Emma understands that difficult circumstances can make good choices unimaginably hard. So the anger she feels deep in her gut for the evil queen starts to disappear, replaced with admiration and respect.   
Nothing changes, not at first. She fakes the loathing she no longer feels because she doesn't understand what's going on, and doesn't want people asking questions until she does understand. She still doesn't trust Regina, still keeps a wary eye on her. But sometimes that wary eye means that she checks on Regina after a particularly hard day, if only to give her someone to yell at.   
Then she starts making excuses to swing by with Henry. She tells herself it's because of the way Henry loves Regina, the way he lights up when he sees the woman who raised him. But it soothes some piece of herself to see Regina happy, to see the fear and anger disappear from her face, even if it's only for a few minutes or an hour.   
It isn't until the third visit with Henry that she catches herself staring at Regina's smile. She just shakes her head and ignores it, telling herself to get a grip. She blames it on her protective instincts not wanting anything to happen to Regina because it would hurt Henry, blames it on the fact that she is glad that her son has someone who would do anything to protect him.   
But one night, when Henry falls asleep on Regina's couch and Emma doesn't have the heart to wake him, she finds herself in Regina's kitchen, watching her make hot chocolate for the two of them as they chat about the day to day issues with running Storybrooke. And there's a dopey grin on her face that she doesn't manage to wipe off her face when Regina looks at her. 

"I guess I was right, and you've been bringing Henry by to make me happy. Thank you. It's been a long time since anyone cared that I was happy, and I find it rather ironic that the first person to care would be you." Regina finishes with a knowing smirk.   
It startles Emma out of her happy reverie, but it doesn't startle her as much as Regina leaning across the bar to kiss her cheek. Emma sees it coming, could pull away and not let it happen. But what she does is turn her head so the kiss lands on her lips instead. It feels good, better than it has any right to feel, so she doesn't pull away until all of the burners on the stove flare up and the faucet starts gushing. 

"Oops," Emma said with a sheepish grin. "Was that me or you?" Regina just laughed.   
"I think it was you. We'll have to work on your control if you want to keep kissing," Regina said with a smirk. She turned off the faucet and all of the stove burners before kissing Emma on the forehead. She rolls her eyes when a flock of butterflies appear and she shoos them out the door.   
Emma thinks it would be logical to not kiss Regina until she can control her magic better when her emotions flare up. But life makes more sense now, and she likes that feeling. So she carefully takes Regina's full mug and sets it on the counter before holding one of her hands. She leans forward and kisses Regina. The light in the kitchen explodes, but Emma is so happy to be kissing Regina that she doesn't notice until she hears Henry's sleepy voice.   
"I heard something explode, is everyone alright?" he says as he rubs his eyes. Emma whirls around with a guilty look on her face. Regina just laughs.   
"Your mom was trying to practice control over her magic and it didn't go very well," she said as she went over to ruffle Henry's hair. She cleaned up the glass with a wave of her hand, sending it all into the trash can.   
"Really? Because it looked like you two were kissing to me," Henry said with a mischievous smile. Emma blushed and Regina laughed. "I just have one question."  
"Oh? What would that be?" Regina asked. Emma was still too mortified to talk.   
"What took you two so long?"


End file.
